A Madhouse Dramedy – Toronto Fringe 2012 Press Release

A group therapy session has gone awry and now the therapist is dead. The patients try to go about their everyday routine, but that pesky dead therapist is complicating things. And wouldn’t you know it, now she’s up and vanished! Join Dorian, Joanna and Taylor as they hunt for the deceased Mildred; as well as any semblance of sanity.

Rearranging the English Language and bordering between reality and fantasy, this play challenges social norms of normal behavior with bold, creative storytelling by a group of young artists from across the country.

This piece plays with the idea of using words to not speak what we feel. The characters live in a self created sociological world, wherein unique wordplay makes up their daily conversation. This is meant to distract themselves from the madness of it all, but the roots of their malady is far from treated. Band‐aid solutions are temporary after all and the evidence of their own lack of stability is literally lying dead on their living room floor.

Conceived and inspired during a rehearsal for a production of Sweeney Todd, A Madhouse Dramedy underwent a brief work shopping process while the playwright was in attendance at the University of Alberta. This culminated in a public read at the 2010 NextFest Next Generation Arts Festival. What originally began as wordplay, quickly became so much more. So join us at the 2012 Fringe Festival for a fantastical and often surreal therapy session sure to boggle the mind as these three maniacs attempt to deal with one very dead therapist.